Recently, at Startup Week Malaysia, we got to sit in on a talk by Richard Ker. Titled “Storytelling to Grow Your Startup”, it was all about why storytelling matters and how startups can do it.
For those who haven’t heard of Richard Ker, he is the founder of Richard Ker Digital, a creative marketing agency that helps businesses, startups and entrepreneurs grow regionally and globally. How? Through the power of storytelling, of course.
Before he was telling tales about various homegrown businesses on social media, Richard was also deeply involved in Malaysia’s startup landscape, having worked in MaGIC, Cyberview, and Aerodyne.
Throughout his years of experience, Richard has come to learn that good storytelling is a very powerful tool for businesses. Good stories have the power to educate, entertain, and inspire, which is why he believes stories are the best way to communicate and connect with customers.
Good stories get attention, and attention can then be converted to sales, brand reputation, and more.
“With the right story, with the right narrative, you can really, really drive things,” Richard shared.
As storytellers ourselves, Richard’s talk definitely resonated with us. At Vulcan Post, we believe in the power a business or entrepreneur’s story holds, which is why we strive to share these stories.
Here are some tips from Richard that can help entrepreneurs get started in putting their voice, branding, and stories out there in the world.
1. Leverage trends with your own spin
Some people might think that “chasing trends” is a bad thing, but the truth is, paying attention to content cycles can aid greatly in capturing the attention of audiences.
But of course, you shouldn’t just hop on a trend mindlessly. You should be putting your own twist to it, allowing you to utilise the trend as a means to share your own story.
An example that Richard brought up is when American fast food chain Wendy leveraged trending news about mummies and put their own funny twist to it. The post ended up garnering 418K reactions, which likely worked to help keep Wendy’s top of mind for consumers.
2. Combine ideas and audiences through collaborations
Collaborations and partnerships are key methods for businesses to expand their reach. But good storytelling takes place when these collaborations are intentional and involve the combination of concepts and ideas.
For example, Adidas and Lego came together to make a collection together. Lego released a toy brick model of the Adidas Superstar Sneaker, while Adidas released a range of shoes that takes inspiration from Lego.
Rather than a meaningless collaboration, fans of both companies can see the thoughtful design in both products.
Not only can you tell a joint story, you can also leverage one another’s audience. Adidas and Lego have vastly different audiences, but through this partnership, they have tapped into the millions of new followers.
3. Simplify your messages and use catchy copy to capture attention
As a writer myself, I often feel the urge to overexplain things and default to using descriptive wording in order to “story tell”. But as they say, brevity is the soul of wit. To be able to concisely deliver your message is much more impactful compared to using lots of words.
Instead of using jargon, it’s better to just make your language legible for a wider audience and thus more memorable.
Another great tip that Richard gave when it comes to creating catchy copy is the utilisation of a good hook. You need something so strong that you hook people’s attention, and this can often be done through simple and effective messages.
On the topic of simplifying, Richard also shared a tip known as the Rule of Three. It’s a writing principle that’s been around for a while that suggests that people find stories more satisfying and effective when it involves three facets.
Think of mottos such as, “Finger lickin’ good” or “I’m lovin’ it”. It seems like humans tend to find three to be an effective number.
4. Tap into memes and pop culture
This tip is all about fostering a sense of relatability with the audience. Some Malaysian brands that use memes to their advantage include Mydin and GSC.
A good example of how pop culture can be used to aid with comprehension is when Richard Ker related a material called graphene to a material called Vibranium from Wakanda, the fictional country in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This appealed to readers who may not understand the science behind graphene, but can easily understand the context when it’s compared to Vibranium.
His tweet ended up getting over 13,000 likes, proving the efficacy of a strong hook that utilises pop culture allusions.
5. Be agile in diversifying your medium
Platforms like TikTok have grown exponentially over the past few years. With that came the rise of things like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
These avenues might seem intimidating to some entrepreneurs, or they may think it’s just a fad. But the reality is that millions of people are on these platforms watching endless minutes of short-form content.
As the saying goes, the medium is the message. In storytelling, it’s not just the content that matters but also where the content is placed. Short videos are currently one of the best ways to capture attention, so it’s critical that businesses tap into that medium.
6. Curate strong visuals to go with your message
Unfortunately, just words won’t really do the trick of capturing one’s attention.
Impactful visuals can help the audience digest the information. A good example of how this is done is in the tech industry. Rather than explaining all about the specs of a device, it’s better to show it visually.
For instance, instead of just spelling out how thin a device is, it’s better to just show the side profile of the device to get the message across at a glance.
7. Experiment, experiment, experiment
“You need to continuously experiment,” Richard advised. “I might be giving you a lot of tips, but you can only do this by yourself. It’s not going to work for me or for you if you don’t experiment.”
At the end of the day, what works for a person might not necessarily work for another. The algorithm and content cycles are always changing.
There’s no concrete formula that will get you success, but Richard’s tips are essentially resources that you can keep in your toolbelt to improve your storytelling skills and improve your chances of capturing, holding, and converting attention.
Together with good storytelling from brands, we at Vulcan Post also hope to spotlight more interesting businesses in Malaysia.
- Learn more about Richard Ker Digital here.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.
